Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883–November 8, 1970) was an American author. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” is one of Hill’s hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the focus of Hill’s books.

“Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.” – Napoleon Hill.

The turning point in Napoleon Hill’s career as a writer occurred in 1908 when he interviewed Andrew Carnegie as part of a series of articles about famous men. Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist who at the time was one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill discovered that Carnegie believed  the process of success could be elaborated in a simple formula which could be duplicated by the average person. Impressed with Hill, Carnegie commissioned him (without pay and only offering letters of reference) to interview over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.

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